Professional Development: Health and Fitness Workshop!

This school year I had the opportunity to attend the University of Michigan’s annual Health and Fitness Workshop in Ann Arbor. The goal of the workshop is to provide ready-to-implement ideas and practices to take right back to the classroom in areas of health, physical education, sports and athletics, and fitness. It was exactly what we needed and reminded me that getting outside of the classroom to learn, reflect and grow is so important not just for students but adults too!

The day was set up with mini-lessons and hands-on workshops delivered by experts in the field of physical education and fitness. I was able to choose sessions that I thought could directly impact my practice and our current Fitness curriculum at Detroit Prep. During a session on “skill-related fitness” the presenter set up the space like his own gym class and we participated in simple games that used open space like our fitness space, minimal equipment and a ton of balance and agility work. Another session, introduced quick activities to engage students with movement as soon as they enter the classroom, maximizing movement time and creating patterns that spiral skills into fun and easy games. They demonstrated using dice to add math into some of these quick games for kids to get extra practice while they’re moving!

It was great to get some new ideas, connect and collaborate with other Fitness professionals, and share a bit about how we do things at Detroit Prep. I was able to implement some of the strategies, tips and tools I learned during the workshop right away at Detroit Prep. We played partner games, incorporated math into our basketball unit and increased our movement time with quick games and activities. Glad to have been able to bring what I learned back to our Detroit Prep students and watch them grow!